Phoenix Suns circle the troops in an effort to improve

by Paul Coro - Jan. 27, 2011 07:14 PMThe Arizona Republic

The Suns found a way to have a common center at practice on Thursday.

Players and coaches gathered at midcourt and sat in a circle with Managing Partner Robert Sarver and President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby. Each took a turn sharing what he and the next man could do better to help this 20-24 Suns team.

"Keep plugging away and keep trying to get better, compete a little bit harder," coach Alvin Gentry said of the messages.

Something must change. The Suns failed to take advantage of the soft part of their schedule and now face Boston, the East leader, Friday and New Orleans, the NBA's hottest team, on Sunday. Given how the Suns lost seven of their past 13 games against teams with losing records, facing elite opponents is cause to circle the troops.

This season has become a vicious circle. When the Suns have fixed league-worst rebounding, their 29th-ranked defense has let them down. When they defend better, they lose their identity as high scorers with poor shooting or piles of turnovers.

"We had a good stretch and now we're having a bad stretch and we've got to find a way to end this as quickly as possible," Suns guard Steve Nash said. "We've just got to come out, play hard and compete and give ourselves a chance to win. If we lose, we can sleep at night if we compete. I feel like there's been moments where we've been caught thinking instead of fighting."

The Suns went from allowing 39 percent shooting over three games to giving up 50-plus percent shooting in the past two games to Charlotte and Philadelphia.

"I'm disappointed that I thought we'd be a lot more consistent at this stage even with the addition of new guys," Gentry said. "I think the Detroit loss (Saturday) really hurt us, to be honest with you. It made us take a step back because we were feeling good about ourselves. If you win that game and come back 4-1, your psyche would've been different."

Gentry is "really close" to considering lineup or rotation changes. He said he expects to win every home game but that a loss to Boston would not decide the season's fate.

Center Marcin Gortat is prepared.

"When you're losing games to Philly," he said, "when you're (giving up) 120-something points or New York is coming here and scoring 130, then you don't want to see teams like Boston, San Antonio, Orlando coming to play against you. But I'm pretty confident we're going to do well. For games like that, a lot of people concentrate extra special.